Spotlight: France seeks to reinforce economic presence in Cuba

French President Francois Hollande arrived Sunday night in Havana for an official visit, which makes him the first Western leader to visit Cuba after the United States eased the embargo against the island country.

"The visit of the President of the Republic to Cuba on May 11 will be the first visit of a French head of state in this country," said a statement of Hollande's presidential office the Elysee.

Hollande's visit comes several months after the United States announced to restore diplomatic ties and seek to normalize overall relations with Cuba after more than 50 years of confrontation.

Cuba and the United States announced a decision in December 2014 to restore their diplomatic ties, which were severed 54 years ago.

"France is the first country, in name of Europe and among the Western countries, to be able to tell Cubans that we are at their side if they decide themselves to take the necessary steps towards opening up," Hollande told journalists before going to Cuba.

With France being the 10th trade partner of Cuba with a bilateral trade volume of 278 million euros (about 311 million U.S. dollars) in 2013, but 180 million euros in 2014, the visit of Hollande aims to reinforce France's presence, especially economic presence, in the Cuban market, in order to further widen France's access to Latin-American market.

France's economic presence in Cuba is mainly in hotel industry, construction, telecommunications, energy and banking.

According to the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, some 60 French firms already operate in Cuba, with 20 of them in the form of branches.

Besides, tourism has a great potential between the two countries. In 2014, only 100,000 French tourists visited Cuba, while there were roughly 3 million Canadians, reported Le Figaro, adding that the number of France is in a rising trend.

"Some enterprises will accompany me in this visit. It would be important that they invest in Cuba, and some of them already did," said Hollande, cited by Le Monde.

Taking some 60 CEOs of French companies with him to Cuba, Hollande said several contracts "should be signed" on Monday.

Last month, visiting Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said, during his official visit in Paris, "the new Cuban economy opening up process will offer a lot of opportunities to French entrepreneurs."

However, political ties between the European Union (EU) and Cuba was strained when the EU adopted the so-called "common position" in 1996, which basically aligned Europe's policy towards Cuba with Washington's.

Since this year, some high European officials already paid visits to Cuba during the past months following the improvement of relations between the United States and Cuba, including EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

"France has consistently opposed the U.S. embargo," said Fabius, adding that "during my visit, we both wished to reinforce the relations between our two countries."

Moreover, Mogherini said the two sides are negotiating a political dialogue and cooperation agreement with the first meeting scheduled for June.

Hollande's visit can also be considered as France's attempt to lead the normalization of the relations between the EU and Cuba, which sends an important and positive signal to the negotiators of the EU. Endit